As a small European country that joined the European Union in 2004 after being part of the USSR for half a century, Latvia and its system of higher education and research is continually adapting to changing conditions, both nationally and internationally. While it experienced a certain depression in the 1990s, conditioned by the reorientation from the principles and scale of the soviet system to the needs and resources of a small democratic country, more recently an upsurge exhibiting a more dynamic development can be observed. During the last decade, the universities in Latvia have undergone substantial transformations in respect of both their internal activities and the extending operations reaching out into society. This paper attempts to identify these emerging areas of activity, characterizing the relevant situation and the ways of coping with the existing challenges related to the new tasks faced by universities in the national context.

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